Developing 2D Games with Unity: Independent Game Programming with C#

by Jared Halpern

Chapter 1. Gaming Past and Present Chapter Draw upon the current renaissance in independent games to inspire readers to leverage their own experiences and fresh perspectives to build innovative independent games. ●      Games Historically ●      Games Today ●      Independent Games ●      Game Engines - What are they and why do they matter?   Chapter 2, Introduction to Unity Chapter Introduce the user to the Unity Development Environment. Explain how to navigate the interface, Views, and Scenes, and configure Layouts for ease of development. ●      Install and Configure Unity ●      Navigating the Unity Interface ●      Understanding the Different Views ●      Configure and Customize the Layout ●      The Transform Toolset ●      Unity Documentation   Chapter 3. Foundations Chapter Walk the reader through C# syntax, naming conventions, and data types. Teach the reader about Unity-specific concepts like Game Objects, Components, and Scripts. We'll also be talking about some of the more common architectural design patterns and describe why they are used in the context of building our sample game. ●      C# Walkthrough ●      Entity-Component Architecture ●      Game Our Container Entities ●      Building Blocks ●      Logic for Components ●      Prefabs ●      Inheritance and OOP ●      Unity Object Lifecycle ●      Logging Output ●      Debugging   Chapter 4, World Building Chapter Leverage pre-existing and new features of the Unity 2D development toolset to efficiently build out animations, backgrounds, and levels. ●      Importing 2D Assets ●      Working with Sprite Atlases ●      Animating our Sprites ●      2D Tilemapping ●      9-Slicing Tiles ●      Scriptable Tiles ●      Scriptable Brushes   Chapter 5, Building Out the Gameplay Chapter This chapter will focus on tying the content from the previous two chapters together to make a playable game. We will utilize more design patterns, implement collision detection, and talk about best-practices when handling user-input in a generic fashion. ●      Handling User Input ●      Collision Detection ●      The Delegate Pattern ●      Object Managers ●      Physics in Unity   Chapter 6, Beyond the Basics Chapter Discuss and implement various features common across all games, such as scene management, saving data, and UI. Build mechanisms to link together the various states of the game. Demonstrate how to extend the Unity Editor to build tools that increase developer efficiency. ●      Scene and Level Management ●      Managing Game State ●      Building the Game Manager ●  &nbs

Genres: Programming

408 pages, Paperback

Published January 17, 2019

About the author

Jared Halpern is a software developer with many years of experience working in a wide range of technologies. Lately he has specialized in Apple and Unity. Jared has built many iPhone apps over the years, including games, augmented reality, photography, eCommerce, video, and GIF apps. His interests include Swift, Unity, AR, Game Development, and the creative application of these technologies. He has an immense passion for the potential of games as an interactive medium to tell stories and give experiences in ways that other mediums cannot.

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough and easy to follow

Everything is explained well, allowing the reader to create a simple 2D game from start to finish. A great introduction to Unity and its 2D aspects, including screenshots, code explanations, and a repo with all files for easy reference.

[Patrick Coakley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Developing 2D Games With Unity is a pretty great introduction to working with Unity. It doesn’t waste your time and it generally explains what’s going on, however I did find that there were a few times where there were minor settings or changes that I wish had been called out more. Also, I wish the book was a bit beefier and went into more details, as it can feel like there isn’t enough time spent covering everything you could do with a particular system. Otherwise, if you want a pretty quick intro to using Unity I found this to be a great read.

[Drew Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on game development with a focus on 2D.

[James Alston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to 2D games with Unity and a lot of relevant topics covered well. But I was hoping it would be an all-in-one type of book that took a game to completion, but unfortunately it peters out rather suddenly at the end. There is no discussion about intro screens, a game manager, or what to do at the end of game including high score tables and saving game state. I know all that information is available elsewhere, just somewhat disappointed the game we developed in the book wasn't done to completion.

[Artù · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al netto di alcune lacune è un buon testo per introdurre all'utilizzo di Unity sviluppando giochi 2d.
Ha molti meriti tra cui quello di avere un codice preciso e funzionante, quindi seguendo passo passo il libro otterrete una buona base su cui implementare poi le vostre scelte di design.
I difetti è che non copre la parte sonora del videogioco, praticamente otterete un gioco muto.
Per iniziare è ottimo poi però bisogna approfondire e guardare altrove.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two significant problems with this book.

Major: the author advises not only ignoring errors but deliberately writing code to ignore errors.

Minor: the author hasn't decided what audience they are writing for. It ranges from assuming a basic programming background all the way down to elementary school level, i.e. print "Hello" -> hey reader, this line prints out "Hello".

[Charles Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great beginning book for 2D game development with Unity. It covers in detail almost everything needed to create a 2D RPG style game in Unity and the code is well explained.

[Paul Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author explained the steps with both pictures and text which made this book a quick read and easy to grasp. The author also builds upon the previous chapters while learning how to handle unity and its features which makes it a good book for someone wanting to understand the process of game development and unity with some prior programming experience. I wondered what made this book different from any other book I have read. The author didn't provide any major ideas for you to tinker with and there was no major exercises although one could say this book was a exercise of itself. I would have prefered more ideas from the author. In other words it is a great book.

[Nathan]

Skimmed it. Wasn't the right book for me at this time. Reading the docs + blog posts + videos online have generally helped me move forward on hobby projects, and I didn't see things in the book that stood out as strongly different material.

Given my superficial read I'm skipping any star rating.